The Barbados Tridents got their third win of the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) season with an eight wicket victory over the Saint Lucia Kings at the Kensington Oval.
This result is the Tridents’ second win against the Kings this season and snaps a four game losing streak. A number of Tridents bowlers combined to restrict the Kings to a below par score, before Quinton de Kock and Rivaldo Clarke took the game away from the Kings in the back half of the innings.
Kamil Pooran got the Kings off to a handy start and used the PowerPlay to his advantage. The Kings were looking to rebound from being bowled out for 98 against the Patriots on Thursday night and they were on track to do so, at 51 for 1 after the first six. But the Tridents responded as Mujeeb Ur Rahman bowled the danger man Pooran just six balls later.
This sparked a period of excellent, tight bowling from the Tridents as Mujeeb and Jakeem Pollard got on top of the Kings’ batters and slowed the run rate down. Roston Chase tried to take the reins from Pooran shortly after, but the Tridents’ bowlers found their groove and runs continued to be hard to come by for the Kings. Only one of the Tridents’ bowlers finished with an economy in double digits and they were rewarded with wickets as the Kings attempted to finish strongly. Mujeeb ended as the standout, with figures of 3 for 22 from his four. Daniel Sams showed his all his quality in this format, finishing 2 for 20 from four as well.
The last five overs saw the Kings take just 29 runs for 3 wickets as the boundaries dried up rapidly. They finished on a modest 138 for 6 putting the home side in the driver’s seat at half time.
The Tridents started well with the opening pair of Brandon King and Zachary Carter getting ahead of the required run rate. They put on an opening stand of 41 before Roston Chase got the breakthrough for Saint Lucia, removing King.
Carter continued on but shortly followed King after a handy cameo of 32. That brought out Rivaldo Clarke alongside Quinton de Kock and the pair navigated the innings cautiously to begin with, as the Kings’ bowlers began to exercise the same control that their opponents had done earlier on. Joshua Bishop and Charith Asalanka continued to ask questions of the pair with a couple of chances going down and falling short of the Kings fielders.
But de Kock and Clarke were determined to see through in through and secure a vital win in front of the home fans. They paced their innings perfectly and produced an unbeaten 76 partnership to secure victory. The two even started to flex their muscles and in the end got the job done with a comfortable 13 balls to spare. The Tridents will continue their homestand against the Patriots on Thursday. The Kings play their final group stage match against the Warriors on Wednesday.
CPL
